Chadwick Boseman Was Showered With Love at the 2021 SAG Awards

Chadwick Boseman was showered with love at the 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards, which happened Sunday, April 4. The late actor, whose work in Da 5 Bloods and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom has garnered much critical acclaim, was honored by colleagues and loved ones alike several times through the ceremony. 

Of course, Boseman was included in the In Memoriam tribute at the virtual SAG Awards, alongside other beloved and dearly departed stars like Naya Rivera, Jessica Walter, Christopher Plummer, and Cicely Tyson. 

Per People, Boseman is the first person to receive four SAG Award nominations in the same year: for his individual performance and for performance by a cast in both Da 5 Bloods and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

When he won for Ma Rainey, his widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, accepted on his behalf, as she has been doing at every major ceremony this year. Thanking his family, collaborators, and inspirations, Ledward Boseman told viewers, “If you see the world unbalanced, be a crusader that pushes heavily on the seesaw of the mind. That’s a quote by Chadwick Boseman.”

She wasn’t the only one to reference the star in her speech. When his Ma Rainey costar, Viola Davis, won for her work in the film, she thanked her fellow nominees and her castmates, saying,  “I couldn’t have been in better company, thank you so much.” She made sure to single out the “beautiful Chadwick Boseman” by name. (“What can I say? I’m grateful. Thank you @sagawards,” she also wrote on Instagram.)

Daniel Kaluuya too shouted out the late actor. “This one’s for Chadwick Boseman,” he said while accepting an award for his role in Judas and the Black Messiah. Kaluuya and Boseman worked together on Black Panther (not to be confused with Judas and the Black Messiah, in which Kaluuya plays a member of the Black Panther Party).